Year: 2024

***

Gospel: John 5: 1-16

There was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
Now there is in Jerusalem at the Sheep Gate
a pool called in Hebrew Bethesda, with five porticoes.
In these lay a large number of ill, blind, lame, and crippled.
One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years.
When Jesus saw him lying there
and knew that he had been ill for a long time, he said to him,
“Do you want to be well?”
The sick man answered him,
“Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool
when the water is stirred up;
while I am on my way, someone else gets down there before me.”
Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your mat, and walk.”
Immediately the man became well, took up his mat, and walked.

Now that day was a sabbath.
So the Jews said to the man who was cured,
“It is the sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to carry your mat.” 
He answered them, “The man who made me well told me,
‘Take up your mat and walk.'”
They asked him,
“Who is the man who told you, ‘Take it up and walk’?”
The man who was healed did not know who it was,
for Jesus had slipped away, since there was a crowd there.
After this Jesus found him in the temple area and said to him,
“Look, you are well; do not sin any more,
so that nothing worse may happen to you.”
The man went and told the Jews
that Jesus was the one who had made him well.
Therefore, the Jews began to persecute Jesus
because he did this on a sabbath.

The Gospel of the Lord.

***

***

The Gospels are filled with stories of miraculous healings. But these stories often conclude with the miracle itself; someone is healed, then Jesus and the person healed move on.

Today, however, we get a glimpse of what happened after the miracle. 

***

A man was crippled for 38 years – so crippled all he could do was lay on a mat. I imagine him balled up like a cat, his limbs deformed, his body overcome with arthritis.

Suddenly, Jesus comes along and heals him using the power of his voice. Anyone would’ve been overwhelmed by such a gift, but where would you go if you were suddenly able to walk?

Perhaps back home to share the good news with family or friends.

Yet the Gospel tells us, “Jesus found him in the temple area.” Meaning, the first thing this man did with his freshly healed legs was walk – or maybe run – to the Temple to give thanks to God.

***

Gratitude. 

***

Anyone who’s had a prayer answered – whether it was something minor or something major like the healing of this crippled man – has a reason to give thanks to God. 

So, what’s something I’m grateful for? 

***

Now is the opportunity to put this Gospel into practice. Go up to the temple – go to the house of the Lord either today or on Sunday – and, “give thanks to the Lord for he is good, for his love endures forever” (Psalm 136:1).

***

***

Image credits: (1) LinkedIn (2) The Puzzling Pool of Bethesda, BAS Library (3) Whiteland Church of Christ

***

Gospel: John 4: 43-54

At that time Jesus left [Samaria] for Galilee.
For Jesus himself testified
that a prophet has no honor in his native place.
When he came into Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him,
since they had seen all he had done in Jerusalem at the feast;
for they themselves had gone to the feast.

Then he returned to Cana in Galilee,
where he had made the water wine.
Now there was a royal official whose son was ill in Capernaum.
When he heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea,
he went to him and asked him to come down
and heal his son, who was near death.
Jesus said to him,
“Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe.”
The royal official said to him,
“Sir, come down before my child dies.”
Jesus said to him, “You may go; your son will live.”
The man believed what Jesus said to him and left.
While the man was on his way back,
his slaves met him and told him that his boy would live.
He asked them when he began to recover.
They told him,
“The fever left him yesterday, about one in the afternoon.”
The father realized that just at that time Jesus had said to him,
“Your son will live,”
and he and his whole household came to believe.
Now this was the second sign Jesus did
when he came to Galilee from Judea.

The Gospel of the Lord.

***

***

Let’s walk for a moment in this father’s shoes.

His child is deathly ill, lying in bed at home. Although he’s a high-ranking government official, no amount of wealth or influence will cure his child. He needs Jesus.

However, there’s one major problem: the Lord is 20-miles away in Galilee. 

I imagine this father sprinting, searching desperately for Jesus until he finds him. Finally, out of breath, he throws himself at the Lord’s feet, begging Jesus to visit his home.

But the Lord insists, “You may go; your son will live.”

What proof does this father have? How can he know for certain? If we were in his shoes, wouldn’t we ask the Lord for a sign, or confirmation of the healing?

But, the Gospel says, “the man believed what Jesus said to him and left.”

Now he can walk – not run – back home.

***

This man’s forty-mile roundtrip journey from his home in Capernaum to Galilee and back is symbolic of the Christian journey.

***

We begin by searching.

Though it may not be an ill child, something inside of us is stirred, causing us to look for Jesus. After a certain period of time, we find him. 

We encounter him.

That encounter with the Divine changes our perspective; it fills us with peace. Then we do what this father did – return home and share the Good News with others.

As the Gospel says, “He and his whole household came to believe.”

Which stage of the journey am I in?

Am I still seeking, searching for answers? Have I found the Lord? Am I now sharing my faith with others?

***

May the Lord bless our Lenten journeys, so that we may proclaim with others at Easter, “My Lord and my God!”

***

***

Image credits: (1) QuoteFancy (2) 123RF (3) Kairos Network Church

***

Gospel: John 3: 14-21

Jesus said to Nicodemus:
“Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, 
so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 
so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.”

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, 
so that everyone who believes in him might not perish 
but might have eternal life.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, 
but that the world might be saved through him.
Whoever believes in him will not be condemned, 
but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, 
because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
And this is the verdict,
that the light came into the world, 
but people preferred darkness to light,
because their works were evil.
For everyone who does wicked things hates the light
and does not come toward the light, 
so that his works might not be exposed.
But whoever lives the truth comes to the light, 
so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God.

The Gospel of the Lord.

***

***

When I was a boy, I remember a Southern tale about a man who operated a bridge connecting his small town to another.

The man’s job was to raise that bridge when a ship was passing through the local waterway, and to lower it when a train was approaching.

One day, he brought his son to work to show him what Daddy did. The boy marveled at all of the switches, the windows, and the seemingly magical bridge that was raised and lowered by the flick of his father’s finger.

When it came time for the final train of the day to pass through, the father realized that his son had gone missing.

From his tower post, he saw his boy playing at the base of the hill, right where the train was coming and the bridge was set to drop.

He knew if he lowered the bridge without warning that it’d kill his son. But if he didn’t, then the train speeding towards them would be derailed, crashing into the river below, killing everyone on board.

This poor father had to make a split-second decision: to lower the bridge or to rush and save his son.

***

He lowered the bridge.

***

No one onboard that train knew about the sacrifice this father made as the train sped on.

But how might these passengers’ lives have been changed if they known about this father’s sacrifice, that his son died in their place?

Would they have returned to thank him? Or made some effort to pay it forward?

***

In today’s Gospel, Jesus shares, perhaps, his most popular words ever spoken:

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish, but might have eternal life.”

Just as that father lowered the bridge, allowing the train to pass through safely saving everyone onboard, so God lowered the bridge from heaven to earth at the cost of his Son, allowing humanity to pass safely into eternal life.

Imagine all the people onboard this train. God does not discriminate between one passenger and another. All who believe in him Sha find eternal life.

In fact, he’d lower that bridge if you or I were the only person onboard.

***

How does this truth change us?

Are we ever like those passengers onboard the train, which sped along without us aware of what happened? Have we sped through Lent?

Or have our hearts been transformed by Christ’s sacrifice, inspiring us to pay it forward?

***

In three weeks, we will celebrate Easter, this marvelous truth that God has loved us and given himself for us. 

He has lowered the bridge.

May these remaining weeks of Lent be marked with ever deeper faith and gratitude that, “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish, but might have eternal life.”

***

***

Image credits: (1) Alabaster Grace Ministries (2) Reddit (3) Christ is a Bridge to Heaven, Elizabeth Wang, Fine Art America